Rock climbing and other climbing activities typically involve use of a safety rope set-up. The safety rope set-up typically includes tying one end of a rope to a climber, with a second end of the rope being passed through an anchor point at/around a highest position of a climbing surface, before the second end is passed through a belay device and held by a person designated to ensure safety of the climber.
The belay devices currently in use in the market rely on various techniques to increase a frictional force applied to a rope passing through the belay devices. These techniques include, for example, increasing a contact surface between the device and the rope, using a camming action on the ropes and so forth.
However, the belay devices currently in the market require users to have prior training and/or experience to vary the frictional force being applied to the rope passing through the belay devices. This is undesirable as each of the belay devices is only able to handle specific climber weight categories and not able to handle a plurality of climber weight categories.
Most belay devices also rely on an attendant (belayer) holding the rope at all times. The climber risks “free-falling” to the ground should the belayer deliberately/accidentally/unwittingly release the rope, thus compromising the safety of the climber. This is most undesirable.